Israel-Hamas war: 14 more hostages released on Sunday

Nine children, four women and a Russian-Israeli were released Sunday by Gaza rulers Hamas, according to accounts given to AFP by their relatives, Israeli media and the Hostage Families Forum.

The releases bring to 63 the total number of freed hostages from around 240 taken to Gaza after the unprecedented October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

The releases came following a Friday agreement between Israel and Hamas, which is supposed to last for four days and allow for 50 Israelis and 150 Palestinians to be freed.

Thirteen Israeli hostages were released on Friday and the same number on Saturday, and in exchange Israel freed 39 Palestinian prisoners on Friday and a further 39 the following day.

The Russian-Israeli freed on Sunday was not part of the truce deal, with Hamas saying it freed him “in response to the efforts of Russian President Vladimir Putin”.

The Palestinian militant group also freed three Thai nationals on Sunday. Fourteen Thais and one Filipino had already been released by Hamas outside the deal.

Footage released by Hamas shows some of the hostages being released over the weekend smiling and waving — leading some Palestinian supporters to claim the hostages had been “treated well”.

One person hit back on X, “Because you can literally hear them telling them to keep waving in the video. Their whole family is still there and you think they are waving out of their own will?”

Israel’s official X account wrote, “‘Keep waving.’ Hamas murdered their loved ones. Hamas violently kidnapped them from their homes. Hamas held them hostage for 49 days. ‘Now smile at the camera and wave goodbye so the world will think we’re human.’ Hamas is evil.”

Last month, 85-year-old Israeli hostage Yocheved Lifshitz was seen in similar video released by Hamas shaking hands with her captor after she was freed.

When later asked by reporters why she turned back to shake his hand, Ms Lifshitz said her captors had treated her with “with softness and supplied all our needs”.

Following her release, the 85-year-old, who was freed along with 79-year-old Nurit Cooper, said she “went through hell” during her abduction but had been treated well while held captive in Gaza.

The gunmen “beat me on the way, they didn’t break my ribs but hurt me very much”, she said.

Mr Lifschitz said a paramedic regularly came to bring her medicine while held hostage and captives are being forced to sleep on mattresses in tunnels.

“They gave us pitta bread, hard cheese, some low fat cream cheese and cucumber and that was our food for the entire day,” she said, adding that the militant group was “really prepared” for the situation.

The Israeli hostages freed on Sunday are:

Elma Avraham

The 84-year-old artist was on the phone with a neighbour on October 7 when armed men burst into her home in Nahal Oz kibbutz at around 11am.

“There’s a terrorist in my house!” she told the neighbour.

Her son Uri Rawitz, with whom she had also spoken earlier, said Elma had not managed to lock the door to the safe room in her house.

Uri later received a photo of his mother being taken away on a motorcycle by armed fighters with another hostage.

Avraham’s second son, who also lives in Nahal Oz, escaped the attack.

Aviva Siegel

The 62-year-old was taken from her home in the Kfar Aza kibbutz along with her American husband Keith, 64, who is still being held.

At the time of the early morning attack, the couple grabbed their phone and took refuge in the safe room of their home, still in their pyjamas, according to their son-in-law Yuval Baron.

He told The Guardian newspaper they had thought it was just another rocket attack, but soon afterwards Siegel and her husband were seen being taken away with other hostages by armed men.

Schoolteacher Aviva was born in South Africa but moved to Israel when she was eight.

The couple have four children and five grandchildren.

Hagar Brodetz and her three children

Avihai Brodetz said he was trying to defend Kfar Aza kibbutz when his wife Hagar, 40, and their three children were kidnapped.

Several days later he found out they had survived the attack but had been abducted along with Abigail, a neighbour’s child who had taken refuge in their home.

Ofri, the eldest child, marked her 10th birthday in captivity in Gaza. Her younger brothers Yuval and Oria are aged 8 and 4.

Abigail

After seeing her parents killed at Kfar Aza, Abigail, who holds US citizenship, took refuge with the Brodetz family, and was kidnapped with them.

Michael and Amalya, her brother and sister, escaped the attack by hiding in a closet.

Abigail had her 4th birthday in Gaza on Friday.

Chen Almog-Goldstein and her three children

A 48-year-old social worker, Chen Almog-Goldstein was kidnapped from Kfar Aza kibbutz with three of her four children: Agam, 17, Gal, 11, and nine-year-old Tal.

The children’s father Nadav Goldstein and Yam, the eldest daughter, were killed in the attack.

They are members of the family of Doron Almog, a former high-ranking army officer and current chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, a non-profit organisation that encourages Jews to immigrate to Israel.

Five members of the Almog family were killed in an October 2003 suicide attack on the Maxim restaurant in Haifa which was claimed by Hamas ally Islamic Jihad.

Sisters Ela and Dafna

Ela, 8, and her sister Dafna, 15, were abducted from their father Noam Elyakim’s home in Nahal Oz kibbutz.

The day after the attack, their mother Maayan Zin saw a photo on WhatsApp of Dafna “sitting in pyjamas on a mattress in Gaza with the comment ‘In prayer clothes it would be better’”.

The bodies of the girls’ father, his partner Dikla and her son Tomer were found riddled with bullets in an empty lot.

Before he was shot, 17-year-old Tomer had been told by militants to go door-to-door and speak in Hebrew to convince his neighbours to leave their shelters.

Ela and Dafna also hold Hungarian nationality, according to media reports.

Ron Krivoy

The 25-year-old Russian-Israeli worked as a sound technician at the Tribe of Nova music festival attacked by the militants.

Initially he managed to escape and hide in a ditch, his sister Julia told Israeli media, but by noon an Arab-speaking person was answering his phone.

The youngest of three siblings, Krivoy was born in Israel, and, according to his father, had survived two car accidents and a fall into a sewer.

Hamas said he was being released outside the truce deal with Israel, and “in response to the efforts of Russian President Vladimir Putin and in appreciation of the Russian position in support of the Palestinian cause”.